17 August 2012

Checking our Ashkenazi Privilege

We recently explored the Blank-slatist's charge that U.S. minorities are currently under-achieving due to 'white privilege.' What we found was that America's Asian minority is not only immune to this woe, but that they out-perform Euro-Americans on a number of measures. As we said then,

How to explain this paradox? Are Asians creeping in at night and siphoning off the privilege from Whites' privilege-tanks? Are they endowed with a force-field that resists the Euros' privilege-rays, ricocheting them back in a blinding flash that then cripples white performance relative to their own?

As it turns out, Asians are not the only group strangely inoculated against this danger.

One of the most persecuted, oppressed, and vilified groups in human history has settled in significant numbers in the U.S. and, despite years of mistreatment, has managed to resist the damaging effects of WASPs' privilege rays: Ashkenazi Jews.

How do we know?

1) Wealth

Forty-six percent (55% of Reform Jews) report family incomes of over $100,000 compared to 19% of all Americans, with the next highest group being Hindus at 43%.

Despite years of exclusion and oppression, American Jews have succeeded in introducing themselves into the political landscape. At present, two of America's three largestcities have Jewish mayors. This group has also found its way into some of the most important federal bodies:

One of the most influential bodies of the American Republic, the Federal Reserve, has in its hundred-year history known chairmen of German, English, Scottish, and Jewish ethnicity. Here is a breakdown of each group's time in power:

Of the countries' three most influential historic newspapers of reference, two have interesting Jewish history:

The New York Times, founded in 1851 by two gentiles, was bought in 1896 by Adolph Ochs, son of German Jewish immigrants. It remains in the family today, his great-grandson Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. currently at the helm.

The Washington Post was founded in 1877 by gentile Stilson Hutchins, then bought and saved from bankruptcy during the Depression by Eugene Meyer, a Los Angeles Jew. Meyer went on to marry a Lutheran woman with whom he had a daughter, Katherine Meyer Graham, whose husband Philip took over the paper from Eugene. After Philip's suicide, Katherine took over for twenty years, followed by her son Donald, and today by Donald's niece Katherine Weymouth.

Though excluded from many professions, Jewish Americans have excelled in the influential world of the press, historically and at present. Today, the editorial boards of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post are each around 35-40% Jewish. In addition, Arthur Hu has estimated at 26% the percentage of reporters, editors, and executives in the print and broadcast media world.

It is impressive to consider that this ethnic minority group was once systematically excluded from U.S. law firms, financial firms, and a variety of professions, as well as rejected from top colleges by severe quota systems.

Were one to branch out historically from the U.S. to Europe, one would see that this group has suffered many brutal persecutions throughout history, including segregation, economic exclusion, extrajudicial violence, forced deportation, and mass murder. Despite these hardships and the indelible impression they must have left, Ashkenazi Jews have shown themselves able to overcome any and all Euro-gentile privilege thrown their way.

They, along with Asian Americans, must serve as an inspiration for minorities such as Afros and Hispanics. For these latter two groups' past persecutions, we are told, have left them vulnerable to White Privilege in ways that force them to under-perform even today. Perhaps our Asian and Ashkenazi co-citizens will be kind enough to reach out and share their magic elixir. For if one group can successfully battle White Privilege, can't they all?

Of course in both Asian and Ashkenazi cases, there are both genetic and cultural components to their advantage over the other mentioned groups. The author of this post clearly understands, but society can't see the obvious as well as she.

Amazing post! This is a great reference tool for all those who need to see the extent of tribal cohesion and resultant success of the Jewish people.

Unfortunately, I feel that Whites are becoming the new Jews, before the Jews woke up to the danger they faced from envy and assimilation:

I hope that MG, you can make contact with Fjordman, the current voice in Europe for the defense of Whites. He would love to reference your work, and trans-atlantic cooperation will result.Here is all of his work, which could use your data and graphs to further illustrate it. http://chromatism.net/fjordman/fjordmanfiles.htm

"As I indicated in one of my essays in 2006, by all available standards we’re one of the most successful cultures in the world, yet our largest flaws, which could eventually bury us, are our naïveté, our excessive openness, and our lack of tribal instincts.

Why on Earth should we quietly watch while our country is subdued by the most unsuccessful cultures in the world?"

Tribal cohesion is overrated. The Middle East and Africa are filled with tribal societies no sane person would want to live in. It was the ability to transcend narrow tribalism and forge nation states that made Western Europe great.

Assimilation may pose danger to the survival of Judaism, but even that is debatable since the most devout Jews who care about the religion have the most children and are more than replacing themselves. On the other hand, for individual secular Jews who don't care about the religion, further assimilation doesn't pose much danger. We don't all want to be Orthodox or live in Israel, however much you might prefer it if we did.

Dewey--Thanks for your comment. I am a fan of Fjordman and have been reading his pieces at Gates of Vienna for a long time. I'll see if I can get in contact with him about my data--I have quite a bit on international values surveys that he might find of interest.

I know he's faced some struggles, but his voice is so powerful I hope he continues to write. There are vanishingly few from his part of the world willing to take the public stands he has.

American Goy--Would you mind if I put the whole of this writeup on my blog?

Not at all, go right ahead. The data is here to share for any and all who may find it of interest.

% of Americans with undergrad degrees seems that Jewish (all) is a smaller bar than Jewish (reform).

Indeed. I believe the Jewish (all) number is an average of the Jewish (Reform) and the Jewish (Conservative) numbers. The original data from the Pew Religion Survey can be seen here. They give 23% of Conservatives (total sample 218), and 31% of Reform (total sample of 315)--but I'm not sure how, from that, they came to a Jewish (all) number of 24%. It seems it should be more like 28%, no? Not sure if this is a Pew error or a typo.

Jewish (all) could also include Orthodox Jews, who are less likely to attend college than Reform or Conservative Jews. That is particularly the case for ultra-Orthodox Jews and hasidic Jews (the two groups are not synonymous, although hasidim are ultra-Orthodox).

I think Anon could be right about Orthodox/Hasidic on the Pew survey. Looking again at the Pew numbers, they give as the sample size: Jewish (Reform) = 315, Jewish (Conservative) = 218, but Jewish (all) = 676. That's 143 Jewish respondents unaccounted for. Were they ultra-Orthodox? Some other sect? Whoever they were, it seems to be they who brought the global average down to 24%.

When we add the fact that jews infamously underreport themselves to the Census, etc., and often hide as "White" (I have known many, especially owners of newspapers, travel agencies, and banks), then the true picture emerges.

The Founding Fathers were Whites (nearly every one), and Whites built this country -- the USA, that is. We Whites must reverse the "Ashkenazi Privilege." Now.